I am thinking of moving up to Costco KS8 from KS5. I’ll start by saying that my biggest problem, like a lot of you, is hearing speech in a noisy environment.
First, can you plug an external microphone (e.g. high gain directional mic) into your iPhone and then use the Remote Microphone setting under iPhone hearing devices to listen? Or can this use only the native, built-in iPhone mic? Obviously here I’m trying to make my own “Roger Pen.”
Does anyone have any experience using the Connexx Smart Mic with your HA? Must it be attached to the person you want to hear or can you hold it and “aim” it at a person close by to better hear them?
When you use the KS8/iPhone, system, does listening to a phone call involve both sets of HAs or just a L or R?
Hang in for the KS9’s. They are due to be released in the Spring of this year. The price should still be $1599. I’ll post release date as soon as I get the call.
Spring? That strikes me as unlikely. The KS8s came out in February or March of 2018 and they’ve been on roughly an 18 month cycle. I’d guess August at the earliest. What info do you have?
Also, the “pattern” has been for $100 price drop with each new model. KS6 was $1799, KS7 $1699 and KS8 $1599. Nothing says that pattern will continue, but it’s a possibility.
I am also looking at the KS 8.0 HA’s. I’m new to the forum and HA technology. As best as I can decipher the specs for the KS 8.0 is that they have a Rexton feature called XPhone. It appears to be similar to the Signia feature called TwinPhone. It seems to be designed for phones that the HA user uses on an ongoing basis. A magnet is the attached to the receiver of the phone and it triggers the HA to send the received signal to both ears. Here are some links I found that talk about it.
I am not a iPhone user, but I would expect if you pair the HA’s with your iPhone you will get direct streaming of phone calls to both ears. Here is a link from Signia that might help. The magnets would be needed for land line phones you use personally.
I trialed those and that feature does work as advertised and makes landline or normal cell phone use much easier. It does transmit the signal to the other ear. You can do it as a manual program too, just choose that program and talk on any phone. Phonak has a similar program.
Rexton calls it x-phone. If I remember you click the red or blue button to activate it for that ear (transmits to the other). You can click the middle button to work if you take a call on either ear. It makes the mic really hot, picking up anything on the phone. I had it set as a manual program but I believe you can have it set for automatic if you have a phone with a magnet (I don’t):
Am I correct in assuming if you put the magnet on the phone, you don’t have to set a program for it, and it just switches to the XPhone mode by itself? Do the HA’s come with magnet(s)?
Your pro can set it up to work that way. It can be set to work both ways. The advantage of a manual program is that you can use it on any phone, not just a phone with a magnet.
I had mine set as the last program and since the KS8 can select programs going up and down, I was one button push from the phone program. So if someone handed me a strange phone, one push and I was good to go.
